"Achk..ack.." Edward coughed hard at the black smoke of the gunpowder, and the destruction he had caused was massive. The height of the explosion cloud? He couldn't see as he was too well into the rubble due to the blast's shockwave.
He got out of the rubble and prepared his weapons for combat. More enemies were arriving from the gate very soon. There was the possibility of an assassin joining them. If that happened Edward would have to abandon the thieves and run. So, he had to be fast in disposing of any nearby enemies and talk the thieves out fast.
"Agh.. Agh." As soon as Edward tried to move, his leg ached with pain as if a fish had bitten it. He put his gun back into its holder and inspected the part where the pain came from. His hand discovered that a piece of wood had passed through his pants and priced his left leg near the ankle. It wasn't good news for him.
His earlier plan to fight was impossible now. The feeling of walking on the hard wooden rubble felt more difficult. He felt the weight on his legs, and his walking had turned more crooked than he realised.
"I need to get them out right now. I can't win with this wound." Edward let the piece of Edward be inside his leg, and there was a chance of infection, but the possibility of bleeding out haunted him more.
In screeching pain, Edward made his way through the rubble filled with the aftermath of the building caught in the explosions. He walked through the broken wood, metal and glass in the choking smoke around him. The wood creaked and cracked under his weight sometimes. The noise of the rubble was louder than the noise of the rain which fell on him.
"The winds are getting faster." Nature was now moving against him, and the wind that had died down was speeding up at once, and Edward knew his smoke shield wouldn't last for long.
Forcing himself through the dust and rubble, he reached the building's door. He had sacrificed the lives of 79 men and women and manipulated a man to perform a suicide attack for him, all for this. If the gates did not open, it all would go to waste.
"Open the door, for god sake!!!" He slammed his hand against the door. Silence was the answer at the door. He felt like he sounded threatening to the people inside. He had to opt for a better way of manipulation, the way he pushed Tolono to die for him.
"I am Edward Kenway, and I came here to rescue you from his place, but I need your help now. I've killed all the men that surrounded this building. You need to come out and grab arms and fight alongside me. Your friends, like Tolono with the countless soldiers, have given their lives for his moment. Please, for the sake of Britannia. Open the gate!!" Edward leaned against the door and spoke with the uttermost sense of duty and determination, but his voice cracked in desperation, and only suffocating silence responded.
Then drowned the boat of swift small victories Edward had sailed, and the difficulty of the situation had turned more by 10 fold. Edward suffered a big failure.
" I didn't prepare myself." Edward's arms leaned against the door, his jaw clenched in anger and disappointment. He didn't think of a way to get the door to open earlier, but he only thought of the first part of the plan. Now, he was alone and injured, not a predator but the prey.
Did I lose my gambit too? If I did. These men will pay the price.
"Don't go deep into the smoke. Keep at the edges. Shoot anyone sees, ally or foe doesn't matter." The soldiers had approached faster than he thought, and the smoke blew away swiftly. Edward got up straight and clutched his gun and dagger tighter than before.
He needed to do something because if the door did not open and the thieves died, his guilt would not let him see this daughter with a smile. Something had to pay for his guilt, blood for blood.
His gun out of his holster, he aimed his pistol in the smoke. He had a few shots before the enemy shot in the smoke blindly. The aim was towards where he heard the voice and then pushed the trigger.
*bang
"A bullet!! Open fire into the smoke." The enemy men called out in sheer panic, and the bullet did not seem to hurt anybody but alerted them instead, and the panic came along by a rain of bullets from the other side.
*bang bang bang
The noises of the bullets filled the area, and Edward saw bullets fly and destroy the objects around him. Some bullets hit corpses, and some hit the ground.
"Tch..." Edward bit his lip in anger as he had to change his strategy. The bullets blocked his pathway to go for the right, and the only option was the core of the first blast. His legs couldn't support him running much longer as his battle fervour slowed, but he had to fight.
He got up and positioned himself to run, and the smoke had nearly vanished from the left side of the path in front of him. He pushed himself forward as soon as the bullets stopped coming. He reached ahead and jumped into a crawling position by the broken house.
" How are they appearing so fast?!" Edward looked beyond the small smoke screen, men dressed in velvet ready with guns in their arms. He did not count, but there were no less than 10, and ready to shoot anyone who came out of the smoke.
" I need to kill." His options were running out, and all that was left was to fight men. How many bullets they had with their exact position was unknown to him. To fight was to die here, but there was a possibility he could escape under the cape of chaos if he killed a man to divert the attention.
"?!" The raking sound of metal screeching against the sound, and along it rose the noise of bullets striking against hard metal. Edward's ears received the noise, and his eye noted the reaction on the militiamen's faces.
Edward turned his face towards the den, a ship he thought had downed sailed again. The pain in his leg felt a lot less, and his mind ran more sharp. He estimated the position of the men he saw and crawled back out of their sight, and when he did. He got and turned the building to see his success in the clear as the smoke vanished in the winds.
The door lay open, and it rang with the noise of the bullets, large enough to cover the entire path of the right side of the building from the front. Men were already coming from the building and grabbing rifles and swords from the guns. Ready to fight.
Edward had won his gambit and he had his army ready.
He knew he had the area under his control and began it by calling out one of the thieves.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------